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PLEA FOR PEACE: 



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PREACHED IN THE 



(TirR(^H OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS, BALT13I0RE, 

September 26, 1861, 

Ihe ilay of ptiottal lasting, gumiliafiott and I'vaticr, 

BY JAMES PRESTON FUGITT, 

RECTOR. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY, 

1861. 



A 

/ 

V 

PLEA FOR PEACE: 

PREACHED IN TUE 

CHURCH OF THE HOLY IMOCENTS, BALTIMORE, 

September 2Q^ 1861, 
M)xt liy 0f ijitimuU ^siting, %m\\mm mux -fx^tx, 

BY JAMES PRESTON FUGITT, 

RECTOR. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



«■»■»- 



BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 

1861. 



SERMON. 



St. Matt. V. 9.— "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall 

BE called the children OF GOD." 

''Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called 
the children of God ! " Let it be ours, my dear congregation, 
to merit the title and receive the blessing. More particularly 
should I, a minister of the peaceful Jesus, with the solemn 
vows of ordination resting on me to set forth ''quietness, 
peace, and love," among mankind, exert all my powers in 
the ways of peace. And, as we have the past hour engaged 
in the worship of Him whom the gentle St. John wrote of 
thus, "God is love," praying those "sj)ecial" prayers com- 
posed for this sacred occasion, I trust you are prepared to 
listen to the words of your pastor, who labors for peace. If 
my remarks shall refer to topics of a political nature rather 
than to those duties which are usually the theme of a reli- 
gious discourse, be pleased to remember we are called together 
by the exigency of the country, and that consequently a ref- 
erence to matters of State is natural, if not opportune. And 
here let it be said, as in things spiritual we are taught to 
say "Our Father" — thus giving us to understand that man 
possesses a common parentage and universal brotherhood — 
so, with respect to the teachings of patriotism, let it be 
known, accustomed in boyhood to hail the flag of my country 
with the rising, and to bless it with the setting sun, this hearty 
ignoring all geographical lines, by which the States are divided, 
embraces every American as a brother! Hence, I am here, in 
the presence of omniscience, to plead for my bleeding coun- 
try, whose soil and name I love high above all things else 



earthly. patriotism^ thou inspirer of my heart ! To thee, 
poets dedicate their song; on thee, historians delight to 
dwell; through thee, men are heroes, and filled with thy 
godlike inspiration, timid looman braves death! 0, come to 
our rescue, that those liberties which are an entailed inheri- 
tance derived to us from our forefathers, may be transmitted 
to our posterity. 

In appealing to the patriotism of my countrymen in be- 
half of peace, I am aware of a serious and almost insur- 
mountable obstacle in the way of success, namely, dema- 
gogism, which is ever current coin with the multitude. 
The patriot is devoted to country, the demagogue loves self, 
and, like the Scythian Abaris, rides upon a poisoned arrow. 
To the latter (he is seen everywhere) I attribute our present 
unhappy state ; and lie must answer for the blood this war 
sheds, as truly as the assassin for the death of his victim. 
He is in the same degree morally accountable to his country _, 
to his conscience, and to his Grod. I affirm this, because, an 
unnecessary war is murder ; the present war is unnecessary ; 
demagogues are responsible for it, they having forced it on us. 
And, undoubtedly, many of the chief actors in the drama, 
shall stand before the tribunal of eternal justice condemned 
as murderers. Yes, though they, personally, take not a 
life during the contest now pending — qui facit per alium, 
facit per se. Well might they exclaim, 

" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from mj hand?" 

Demagogue ! he wars 

" With the lance 
That Judas fought witfi !' ' 

Demagogue! "sensible that truth would undo him^ he 
rests his hope on falsehood." Demagogue! Adopting the 
maxim used in Spartan politics, that the end justifies the 
means, when it suits his purposes he is the common deserter 
of all parties and the betrayer of his country. Demagogue ! 
Predestinated traitor, thy heart is harder than adamant, and 
blacker than hell ! The vocabulary of languages does not 
furnish an epithet to characterize demagogism. The dem- 
gogne is the second self of the devil. Would that uiy country 
were exorcised. 



It is recorded in Grecian history, that the politicians 
aimed not at public good, hut private preferment. And we 
read these words of Demosthenes — "You see to what 
wretched plight we are reduced by some men haranguing 
for popularity." — "And in proportion as the State has de- 
clined, their fortunes have been exalted." 

That history has its counterpart in our experience, in this 
day of pseudo-patriots, and petrified patriotism, and civil 
war, which is yelling like an infuriated devil let loose from 
the infernal regions. Do we not find the public treasury is 
a sort of Theoricfund, in which every member of the com- 
monwealth has a right to share, when the occasion offers? 
Have we not felt that knavery, getting from the people 
power, is an engine against the State? Have we not seen 
venal wretches plunder ruins which themselves have made? 
Do we not see patriots ostracised, and truth contraband? 
Have we not the /orm of right to excite wrong? Is there not 
at this moment, a thick darkness between us and peace? 
Why? Because the unrufiled waters of peace would leave 
many floating and neglected on the surface. The tempest 
of war lifts them from their place. Pope, you remember, 
once said, "what must be the priest, where the monkey is a 
Grod?" May we not ask, what must be the people, whose 
leaders are venal? Would to heaven we could weed the 
country of demagogues, who merit more than the punish- 
ment of a Tantalus. 

Another obstacle in the way of a peaceful solution of our 
difiiculties, is that "superlative busy-body," the factious 
fanatic and foolish dreamer who travels round and rhapso- 
dizes, playing all the while into the hand of the demagogue. 
The transcendent mountebank of a quack gospel! A re- 
former of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and afiirming that 
to be sin which He said was not sin. For what is sin? It 
is the transgression of the law; and where there is no law, 
there is no sin. This shrieker, carrying more sail than bal- 
last, having the madness of poetry, without the inspiration, 
reminds me of what Macauley says of the noted Greorge Fox : 
"with an intellect in the most unhappy of all states, that is 
to sav, too much disordered for libertv, and not sufficiently 



6 

disordered for bedlam." To this mad-headed preacher of 
''the delusive plausibilities of moral politicians," 1 might 
say, ''it is not that you do wrong by design, but that you 
should never do right by mistake." Your guilt is great. 
Treason you have committed against humanity, and civili- 
zation and religion. Through you the people have been 
tricked into open hostilities to the "supreme law of the 
land." Through you we have been cursed these many 
years with a "sort of unsettled strife and confusion" — a 
constant agitation — a restless enmity. I would not hurl 
you headlong from the Tarpeian rock, but for the cure of 
your madness, would have you go to Anticyra for hellebore. 
Oh, unhappy land, that has fanatics for preachers, and 
demagogues for lawgivers ! The roots of the tree which they 
water, reach down to hell. A sort oi pendulum politicians, 
they are the deserters of every party, as well as the caput 
mortuum of all. Let them be cauterized that the body poli- 
tic may resume a healthy tone. Until that is done, an eifort 
to accomplish any thing for the good of the country were 
vain as an attempt to still a commotion in the ocean by 
breathing on its surface. Had they received at the outset 
the scorn of the good, like the scorpion confined within a 
circle of fire, they would have stung themselves to death. 
But, unfortunately, the union of the two in the North, pro- 
duced a rage of defamation and audacity of falsehood . Truth 
was outraged; lying became a sort of natural art. Reprove 
not the severity, but the lenity of my language. Did they 
not delight in murdering reputations, and mangling their 
carcasses with a hatchet? These flagellants were whipping 
their own enormities on the vicarious back of the slave- 
holder. The climax of cruelties, and the perdition of 
injustice. They doubtless hoped to place the South on 
some huge anvil, and with the ponderous blows of the 
Northern sledge-hammer, beat her into shape as a tool to 
suit the purposes of her enemies. Their crime has no paral- 
lel or prototype, from the day of Adam's disobedience to the 
present hour. Having been intoxicated and thrown into 
delirium by the vapor from the well of Cassotis, they claimed 
a miraculous poAver of prophetic vision and speech. Proba- 



bly, in their nefarious scheme, they anticipated help from 
servile hands, remembering, as thej did, the Laconian 
Helots, in a state of vassalage to Sparta, were ripe for insur- 
rection at any favorable opportunity ; and that the march of 
Epaminondas into Laconia, was the signal for a universal 
rising of that people, when Sparta Avas humbled. They 
forgot history furnishes few instances of the acceptance of 
a general wild offer of liberty, '^t is sometimes," says 
Burke, ''as hard to persuade slaves to be free, as it is to 
compel freemen to be slaves." However, what cared they, 
if in the contest of the arms against the legs, the haclcbone is 
broken f Do they suppose the loyal men of the country 
approve their course? They must be possessed of more than 
Boeotian stupidity. 

Be it remembered, the great mass of Northern citizens did 
not entertain the views and purposes of the parties to whom 
I refer. No. ''Because half a dozen grasshoppers under 
a fern, make the field ring with their importunate chink, 
while thousands of great cattle repose beneath the shadow 
of the British oak, chew their cud and are silent, pray do 
not imagine that those who make the noise are the only 
inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in 
number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, 
shriveled, meager, hopping, though loud and troublesome 
insects of the hour." But, I do afiirm, that the criminal 
inactivity of the great mass produced the rust which destroys 
the metal. These sJiould have come forivard the last tvinter, 
and by manly compromise and concession, construct a platform 
onivhich lo7jal Southerners could stand and breast the storm 
which ivas sioeeping over them. Alas, tliey failed in tlie hour 
of didy. Great is their responsibility! 

With respect to the part played in the drama by our fel- 
low citizens of the South, the following words are appropri- 
ate— "In most quarrels there is a fault on both sides. A 
quarrel may be compared to a spark, which cannot be pro- 
duced without a flint as well as a steel." Doubtless, the 
South has her share of demagogues,— reptiles ! for they are, 
I repeat, everywhere. And the truth constrains me to say, 
that many of her leaders are very unlike the celebrated 



8 

John Locke, as described by an eminent biographer: "His 
intellect and his temper preserved him from the violence of 
a partisan," The crimination of certain parties in the 
North and the recrimination of certain others in the South, 
remind of that fact in the natural world, viz: the fire in- 
creases the wind, and the wind increases the fire. Indeed, 
the course mutually pursued, calls to memory the reciprocal 
hate of the Athenians and the Thebans. When peacemakers 
did interpose for the safety of beloved America, many of the 
compromises offered by the respective parties, were very like 
the diet ordered by physicians for the sick, which neither 
imparts strength, nor suffers the patient to die. Nay, more ; 
the South asked for bread, and received a stone ! The North 
requested a fish, and was offered a serpent! The one was 
upbraided for its "liberty laws," the other was twitted for 
its African slave-trade. Thus, both parties proved it is 
absurd for any one to cry out for constitutional rights, 
without obeying the constitution himself. The one made 
"non-extension of slavery," a pretext for agitation; the 
other made agitation a pretext for "slavery extension." 
The one, to its shame be it said, called slave-holders man- 
stealers and murderers; the other, stung by the infamous 
epithets, was not slow in making a happy retort. Thus the 
two, hardly serious in the beginning, became enthusiasts, if 
not worse, and paved the way for civil war, which was to be 
pregnant with disastrous consequences to all. They dreamed 
not that they who would force asunder the ligaments that 
bind the Union, might meet a fate similar to that of Milo, 
who was wedged to death in an attempt to split an oak. 
They seemed unconscious of the fact that their '^bark was a 
coffin; the destination, darkness; and the helmsman, death." 
Each party, in behalf of its cause, ever ready to cry '■'havoc, 
and let slip the dogs of war." And in this they seem to 
have mutually anticipated success without a struggle, just 
as Archidamus, son of Agesilaus, acquired honor by the 
tearless victory, in which he defeated the Arcadians and 
Argives without losing a single Sj)artan life. Vain thought ! 
When I call to mind the course pursued by the extreme 
parties. North and South, the conviction is forced upon me 



that the present civil war is a meteor formed by the vapors of 
putrefying selfishness, and kindled into flame hy the efferves- 
cence of ambition struggling loith conviction. And now, each 
party would apply to the other, language similar to those 
words of Justin, wherein he attributes the destruction of 
Greek liberty to the ambition of the Thebans, and the im- 
politic measures which they took to secure their own pre- 
dominance. Be that as it may, their united act in the 
bringing of civil war on the country has walled out happi- 
ness, and walled in misery. 

With respect to the course more particularly pursued by 
one of the parties which seemed to be afflicted with a chronic 
mania on the subject of slavery, I would say, having been 
furnished by their counterparts in the North with a pretext 
for some extravagant act, they first excite and alarm those 
about them, and then, (although the National Government 
had done them no wrong) they determined the disruption of 
the country and a new confederacy. Thus reminding us of 
the voice which was heard in the ante-chamber, saying, 
'•'■you have hi'oken the egg, you had better make the omelet." 

To effect their purpose in 1832, they cried out '^nullifica- 
tion," which was only a pilot balloon sent up to show how 
the political wind blew. And being defeated in the national 
election of 1860, they rebel against the decision of the ballot 
box, and set up a government independent of the Federal 
power, thus transferring the right of administration from 
those whom the people have chosen, to those whom the peo- 
ple have rejected! This was an act which indicated that 
the parties thereto w^ere of opinion that the vox populi was 
not the vox Dei. 

Here let me say, nature forbids (opposuit natura) that I 
should exaggerate to their prejudice the steps which have 
been taken by the loved ones of my youth and the generous 
friends of my manhood in these troublous times. Would to 
God all those steps were of a nature which my judgment 
and my conscience could approve of. 

A Southerner by birth and life long residence, as I am, born 
on the banks of the Potomac, of parents whose ancestors for 
many generations lived and died in the sunny land, with 



10 

my every relation a,nd personal friend residents of the South, 
be it mine to say, I love the Southern people ! With them 
are the monuments of my fathers, and the graves of my chil- 
dren, and the mortal remains of her at whose shrine I bowed 
almost an idolater ! With loved ones ' ' not lost, but gone 
before," I shall lay me down to "sleep the sleep of death" 
in yonder silent grove ! 

But, to return to my subject. We are involved in all the 
horrors of a war, civil war, whose flames were kindled by 
the persistent effort of a few in the North and a not greater 
number of the South. When I think of the present wretched 
state of the country, and contrast it with its happy condi- 
tion a year back, I am reminded of the sudden sinking of a 
noble bark in the mid ocean, during a profound calm; the 
ship of state seems to have been a rich Argosy, fitted out 
and freighted only for shipwreck and destruction. And now 
that we are in the midst of civil strife, I almost fear we shall 
witness the scenes of the Carnatic during the eruption of 
Hyder Ali, or those of the fusilades in the city of Lyons, or 
the atrocities of the Province of La Vendee. 

Civil war is on us ! my God ! Americans are murder- 
ing one another, and the followers of the Saviour, under 
opposing standards, imbue their hands in each other's blood. 
We read of the horrors of a battle field, and of those great 
numbers that perish in the camp by sickness, almost without 
a sigh. The making of widows and orphans disturbs us 
not. We thirst for each other's humiliation and ruin. We 
delight to hear that desolation stalks as a hideous monster 
in the midst of those we now designate the "enemy," 
though we once called them friends and loved them with a 
brother's love. Blood cries for blood. Our native land is 
fast dying, and her children are in an agony. Oh, heavens, 
my bleeding country save ! 

Thus civil war arouses and nourishes malignant passions, 
till a flash of fury that gleams like fire from the infernal pit 
consumes its victims. Even now the hoard and arrear of 
collected hate, which has been cliained more than forty 
years, is abroad over the land as a destroying angel. Even 



11 

now the malignity of man almost equals that dcscrihcd hy 
Dante : 

"The gnawing of a skull by a mortal enemy 
With teeth strong grinding to the bone, like dogs ! " 

We have turned into beasts of prey. We are enveloped in a 
black cloud which rains death, in the midst of which stands 
the devil with his hand on the heart of the country. 
Through him we are on the rack — humanity is emptied — reli- 
gion is emhoiceled. 

One of the most serious consequences of our present 
troubles, (as if civil war were the elaboration of all that is 
deleterious and ill,) is the 

"Stuffing the ears of men with false reports." 

These multiply with more than the fecundity of the rattle- 
snake. At first, leading us into a labyrinth of difficulties, 
which bewildered us more and more as we endeavored to 
extricate ourselves therefrom, they would now lead us over 
the bridge of sin and death, from earth to hell. The world 
having read heretofore of ^^ Punic Faith,'' I fear it shall 
hereafter hear of American Truth. I would here say, if 
we throw aside, or mutilate, truth, we shall have no com- 
pass to govern us ; nor can we know to what port we steer. 
For my part, let me worship truth, or give me death. 

Then, there are those who walk^ like Jack the Giant 
Killer, in a coat of darkness, or are wrapped, like iEneas at 
the Court of Dido, in the cloud around them. 

The truth is, the country is encamped on a mine. We 
are so filled with a martial spirit, that', like the man who 
was said of old to eat shields and steel, we drink gunpoiuder 
and eat cannon halls. If this state of things continues, we 
shall winter in the midst of more than Thracian horrors. 

There are those who would save the country by ^'■platoon 
swearing, and volleys of oaths;" others, whose hope of salva- 
tion depends on an avalanche of artillery, and a whirlwind of 
cavalry. For my part, I pray Almighty God to restore peace 
to our unhappy country in His oivn way. I pray Him that 
peace may speedily come, for once thoroughly kindle a mili- 
tary spirit, and how dangerous to disband a numerous and 



12 

veteran soldiery. They will overturn the constitution unless 
they be sent forth against other nations. The Parliamentary 
army of England refused to he disbanded. It first dictated 
to the government, then became the government, and the 
people returned to the rule of the Stuarts for relief from a 
military despotism of eighteen years. By the help of the 
army, as by a lever, the Archimedes of despotism may be 
enabled to overturn the Temple of Freedom, and erect in its 
stead a palace to Caesar. The first stone of the palatial 
foundation is laid, a prolonged continuation of the war will 
rear the superstructure. Then, too, with diminished re- 
sources, we shall have crushing taxes and chronic taxation. 
Having enjoyed the pleasures of getting drunk, we must 
now endure the pains of getting sober. More than that, as 
'Hhe excesses of our youth are drafts on our old age, pay- 
able with interest, about thirty years after date," so the 
expenses of war are taxes on our children, payable with 
accumulated interest, generations hence. 

In addition to all the evils before named, trade, industrial 
pursuits, internal improvements, education, arts, science, as 
well as philanthropy and religion, languish, if indeed they 
be not paralyzed, during the continuance of hostilities. 

Thus, it is perceived, that the relics of an extended civil 
war are a magazine of hate, a reservoir of poverty, and a 
fortress of despotism. And with these we shall have but the 
wreck of the country — the remnant of the flag — and not a 
shred of the Constitution! from the zenith of power to the 
nadir of weakness. Thus I am reminded of these words 
of Junius — ' ' In the shipwreck of the State_, trifles float and 
are preserved, while every thing solid and valuable sinks 
to the bottom and is lost forever." 

This anticipated change in the circumstances of my native 
land, brings to recollection Lucan's Pharsalia, which, refer- 
ing to Pompey, when he entered into the war with Cassar, 
as having his reputation chiefly in the past, says, — ^^Stat 
magni nominis umbra ' ' — He stands the shadoiv of a mighty 
name. To persist in civil war then, is an act of the most 
transcendent folly of which there is any record or tradition. 
It is only accounted for in the adage — ' ' Quern Deus vidt pter- 
dere prius dement at." 



13 

It is a time for a man to act in. Bo it my part tlien^ to 
pray and to labor for the removal of demoniacal strife and the 
restoration oi fraternal peace. And remembering that Domes- 
thenes fortified Athens, not with stones or with bricks, but 
the bulwarks with which he protected Attica, were the 
hearts of the Grreeks, I, in my humble sphere, would appeal 
to America in behalf of those master principles of security, 
a common sympathy and a common safety — "ties, which 
though light as air, are strong as links of iron." Would 
■ you have peace? Can you coerce the sun to shine at night? 
I am aware of the difficulties in the way of the salvation of 
our ho^es. For, as the voice of distress is not heard amid 
the roar of the breakers, so when a great country is boiling 
over with hell-broth, and is being wrecked in a hurricane of 
hate, to cry peace, is akin to pleading with an earthquake 
for mercy. 

Yes, I am painfully impressed with the obstacles in our 
path; for strange, the voice of peace in this day of strife is 
as the discordant sound of a broken instrument. Alas ! 1 
feel the almost hopelessness of the hour. Nevertheless, 
fearfully anxious to escape the fiercest buffetings of the awful 
storm, we must make every effort to reach the tranquility of 
the harbor. Oh^ my God! help, or we perish! With tear- 
ful eyes I pray. On the raging ocean, tossed by angry 
billows, buffeted by howling winds, covered with darkness, 
and death perhaps at hand, helpless and agonized to Thee, 
Saviour! I come for hope. Oh, speak Thou— "teace, be 

STILL." 

Yes, I know what discouragements beset us — the cry of 
^^ peace" is thought by many to be an attempt of the insidi- 
ous Disunionist to soften the teeth of the lion witli milk. 
The cry of "peace," it is contended, is to further the aims 
of the rebellion, or it is a cry without an object. The cry 
of "peace," it is said, is uttered by the avowed secessionist, 
and echoed by the concealed separatist, the latter being the 
vassal of the former. On the other hand, in another section, 
the cry of "peace" is heard by some as they would read the 
fable of ^Esop, where the wolf required the sheep to give up 
their dogs. More than all, '■^ peace men," North and South, 



u 

are looked on as sort of Titans, who, when preparing to 
tear the infernal Bacchus to pieces, plastered their own faces 
with clay to escape detection. And as Jupiter, destroyed 
the Titans with his thunder, so peace men should receive the 
just reward of their temerity through the whispers of the 
spy. Now, if we are to suspect and to deride one another, 
the effort at peace will be unheeded as the cry of fire in the 
midst of the general deluge. As the things that pertain to 
government and legislation are matters of reason and judg- 
ment, and not of passion, so the waters of suspicion and 
hate must subside before the shore of peace appears. Would 
that in beating down the barriers of prejudice and fanaticism, 
our every word was a falling rock, our every whisper a 
sledge-hammer. Would that the ability were given us to 
thaw Northern obstinacy and to cool Southern blood. Until 
this shall be done, all efforts to extinguish the flames of civil 
war were vain as ''pelting a volcano with pebble-stones;" 
and the cry of peace to the American people was like the 
singing of a lulla-by to an enraged tiger. 

In all the earnestness of my nature, I appeal to the 
American people in behalf of peace. Do that which is 
RIGHT in the sight of Grod. Justice having renounced her 
scales, and applied both her hands to the sword, instead of 
the Majesty of Justice we have the Terror of Wrong. 
What is justice? Public magnanimity is justice. The 
feather that adorns the symbol of our nationality sustains 
his soaring above the clouds. Eob the eagle of his plumage, 
and you fasten him to the earth. Magnanimity is not exact- 
ing. Magnanimity accedes to just demands. 

I, a young man, for young men, "attest the retiring, I 
attest the advancing generations, between which, as a link 
in the chain of eternal order, we stand." That which now 
absorbs our attention is the concern of man for all time. We 
stand in the midst of civil war. Justice is immutable and 
eternal. May our country stand, the abode of peace; may 
it stand, the terror of tyrants; may it stand, the refuge 
of afflicted nations; may it stand, a sacred spot-^The Home 
of Justice! 



15 



"Thus my good genius speaks, and bids advise 
The sons of Athens to be just and wise; 
To mark attentive what a stream of woes 
From civil discord and contention flows ; 
What beauteous order shines, where Justiok reigns, 
And binds the sons of violence in chains: 
Folly, of thousand forms, before her flies, 
And in the bud the flowering mischief dies. 
She guides the judge's sentence, quells the proud, 
And midst sedition's rage appals the crowd; 
While clamorous Faction and Contention cease, 
And man is blest with Happiness and Peace." 

Let it be repeated, my cry is for peace, — notwithstandino- 
men of peace are looked upon in tlie different sections of the 
country as a sort of Macedonian or Pliilippizing party, with 
an ^schines as leader. I ask not for a holloio peace, like that 
particular state of a ivound ivliich has just skinned over, as if 
about to heal, hut which is nevertheless rankling underneath, and 
just upon the point of hreaking out into fresh mischief. I ask 
not for a peace which will bring us the continuous alarms and 
never-ending strifes of the "balance of power," No* I 
remember that owing to the dissensions and wars of the 
Grecian States, Philip, of Macedon, was put at the head of 
the Amphictyonic League, which gave him a victorious 
inroad into Southern Greece, and made him the arbiter of 
her destinies. The peace I labor for would be one of the 
most exalted mercies accomplished for mankind since the 
creation of the world. What is it? A peace on the basis of 
coinmon sense and of justice to all parties. Any other attempt 
to avoid hostilities were simply a truce, to be followed, 
speedily, by the adjournment of peace sme idie, and the creation 
of &J perpetual council oi war. Thus an intestine fire would be 
kept alive in the bowels of the nation, which one time or 
other must consume the country. More, the hope of bring- 
ing about a peace by patching up an arrangement which 
should withhold justice ivom.hoth parties, (there might be 
such an one,) is as sensible, allow me to use a homely figure, 
as to expect a barrel to hold water with both heads out. To 
prepare the mind then for a true peace, let me say to him 
who thinks he has right on his side, and is therefore deter- 



1(5 

mined to be unduly exacting, remember the adage — ^'sumnmm 
jus est summa injuria" — right, when pressed to an extreme, 
becomes the height of injustice. 

I now come to the question, "what is peace on the basis of 
common sense and of justice to all parties?" Is it the cruel 
subjugation of one of the contending parties into an unnatu- 
ral Union? — beggar Southerners into submission and keep the 
South as a lair of icild beasts. To do this, you must make 
the country a "Purgatoky" and pass through more than 
purgatorial fires. To avert a calamity so awful, let us pray 
to Him "who stilleth the raging of the sea; and the noise 
of his waves, and the madness of the people." What is 
peace on the basis of common sense and of justice? Is it 
the recognition of the "independence of the Confederate 
States of America?" Hear the Unionist: "That supreme 
allegiance is due the General G-overnment is to my mind 
as legal, as strong, and obligatory, as the laws of the State, 
and the laws of the nation, could possibly make it ; and our 
Church has made this allegiance a religious duty. So, it is 
perceived, as matters now stand, the honor of my nature, 
the patriotism of my heart, and the religion of my soul, 
forbid the recognition of Southern independence." 

Now, when one party looks on its compulsory adherence 
to the Union as something more than a cruel capitulation, 
and the other believes its acquiescence in the demand of its 
antagonist would be an unrighteous surrender, what is to be 
done? Fight out the quarrel? God forbid! I fear that 
this civil war, if prolonged, will be as violent as steam, as 
destructive as fire, as uncertain as the wind, and as uncon- 
trollable as the wave. The alternate successes and defeats 
will be as variable as color, as swift as light, and as empty 
as shade. The eventual quiet of the country will be like that 
which the Roman legions left in ancient Britain, the still- 
ness of death. Already, we breathe the sultry atmosphere 
of war. And as extreme heat indurates clay, so the heart 
is hardened by the fires of those passions aroused by heated 
contests. Already, a wave of blood is moving over the land. 
Already, the crack of the rifie and the booming of cannon 
on many battle fields proclaim that Americans are engaged 



17 

in deadly struggle with Americans. Already, the play- 
mates of our youth and the friends of our manhood are bay- 
oneting one another in the valleys of yon neighboring State. 
Already, your brothers and my brothers on yonder plain 
receive the fatal shot. On the cold ground they are left to 
languish and to die. There no eye pities them. No sister 
is there to weep over them. There, no gentle hand is pres- 
ent to ease the dying posture, or bind up the ghastly 
wounds. Oh! do you not hear the groans and shrieks of 
agony! And then, my God! the very air is 

' ' Wet with orphans' tears, 
And shaken by the groans of -widowed wives." 

Say, my countrymen, Oh, say, shall these things continue? 
The voices of murdered Americans from the grave cry out — 
''Have you not learned wisdom from hitter experience; are ive 
not the victims of your follies and your passions f Cease this 
infernal strife and how hefore your God for mercy and for peace. 

Oh, for a Moses to guide us through the Red Sea of blood ! 
Oh, for a Moses, with rod in hand to smite the rock out of 
which shall gush the waters of peace ! Patriots shall greet 
him as children receive a long absent father. He shall be 
titled Saviour of America ! "A name illustrious and revered 
by nations, and rich in blessings for our country's good." 
Americans, call a National Convention for the settlement of 
the sectional contest. 

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the 
children of God. 



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